1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to food processing equipment and more specifically, to metal molds and a method for using these molds for shaping processed meat or poultry products.
2. Background of the Invention
In recent years it has become highly imperative that meat and poultry products be made available at a reasonable cost. One method for achieving this objective has been to create a restructured meat product which has all of the taste and nutrients of high-grade meats and poultry while being constituted of lower cost and lower grade animal parts. Prime grades of meat and poultry are desirable, but they are prohibitively expensive for many markets and applications.
Various techniques have been developed for formulating a product that looks, tastes and chews like a prime meat or poultry product but which may be fabricated at lower cost. In one prior method, for example, a restructured composite of meat products is pre-frozen until the center of the mass reaches a predetermined temperature, and then tempered through heating to achieve a uniform temperature and consistency. It is then pressed through an extruder and formed into a "log" having the cross-sectional shape of desired conventional meat cuts such as chops, strip steaks, cutlets or the like. The product, in block extruded form, is then re-frozen to hold its desired shape and then cut into controlled portions and frozen solid for shipment and display.
The major drawbacks of such a system have been the excessive amount of time and handling necessary to achieve the end product. Typically, the restructured meat or poultry product must be frozen for a period of up to a day to bring the center of the product mass down to a predetermined temperature necessary to maintain cohesiveness of the meat. As noted above, the product mass is then "tempered" by exposure to a higher ambient temperature until the temperature throughout the product mass is relatively uniform. This "tempering" may take from several hours to a day of additional time. Once the product mass is at a uniform temperature, it may be fed through an extruder and pressed into its desired shape, all the while being maintained at a predetermined low temperature necessary to maintain cohesiveness of the mass. Thereafter, the molded mass is frozen again to a lower temperature suitable for slicing into predetermined portions. This further freezing may take an additional 10 to 16 hours. Finally, the product is packaged for shipment while the temperature is maintained at the necessary low level.
Compounding the problem of processing meats in the aforesaid manner is the fact that raw meat has a high water content, which results in substantial expansion and contraction of the product mass during decreases and increases of temperature. Containment of the meat during changes in temperature has therefore been a problem of considerable moment.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that will simplify the aforesaid processing of shaped meats through the elimination of one or more steps from previously known processes. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for freeze-shaping products using a wide variety of temperatures and an apparatus that can contain the products during wide variations in temperature while maintaining the integrity of the shaped product.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide meat and poultry product shaping equipment which is easy to use, inexpensive to manufacture and adaptable to a wide variety of conventional and accepted product shapes.